1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a paper sheet processor, and more particularly to a banknote processor having a plurality of stackers and capable of efficiently re-checking banknotes.
2. Description of the Background Art
U. S. Patent Publication No. 4,830,742 discloses a prior art concerning a banknote processor having a plurality of stackers and the function of discriminating face-and-back orientations of banknotes.
This prior-art banknote processor has three stackers, namely two sorting stackers and one rejection stacker. Based on judgment about face-and-back orientation by a discriminator, the processors stacks front-faced banknotes on the upper sorting stacker, and back-faced banknotes on the lower sorting stacker, so as to uniform the face-and-back orientation of banknotes.
Since the processor shown in the publication uses two sorting stackers equal in volume, it can efficiently uniform the face-and-back orientation of bank notes when it deals with a random mixture of front-faced banknotes and back-faced banknotes. However, when it is used for re-checking banknotes previously uniformed in face-and-back orientation to a certain extent, much more banknotes are stacked in one of the sorting stackers, and it is not rational from the viewpoint of stacking space.
For the purpose of use the processor shown in the publication in re-checking banknotes, it could be modified by omitting one of the sorting stackers so as to stack back-faced banknotes in the rejection stacker.
In this case, however, if an operator using the banknote processor erroneously puts approximately uniformly faced banknotes on a setting portion, facing majority""s back faces upward, then the back-faced majority banknotes set on the machine are stacked in the rejection stacker with a smaller containing space, and the rejection stacker soon become full.
This kind of problem generally occurs not only with banknotes but also with any kinds of paper sheets such as securities.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a paper sheet processor capable of uniforming face-and-back orientation of paper sheets regardless of the way of setting the paper sheets, and suitable for re-checking paper sheets approximately uniformed in face-and-back orientation previously.
According to the invention, there is provided a paper sheet processor comprising: a paper sheet setting portion for setting a plurality of paper sheets approximately uniformed in face-and-back orientation; a feeding section to sequentially feed the paper sheets set on said paper sheet setting portion one after another; a discriminator for discriminating at least face-and-back orientation of each paper sheet introduced; a first stacker as a main stacker; a second stacker as a sub-stacker having a smaller capacity than that of the first stacker; and a controller for controlling such that the paper sheet first introduced and discriminated in face-and-back orientation by the discriminator is stacked on the first stacker, and regarding second and subsequent paper sheets, those having the same face-and-back orientation as that of the first introduced paper sheet are stacked on the first stacker and the others having the opposite face-and-back orientation from that of the first introduced paper sheet are stacked on the second stacker.
Also when the second paper sheet, et seq. do not coincide with the first paper sheet in orientation of a pattern, denomination of banknotes or genuineness, the discriminator can stack paper sheets in a second stacker.
According to the invention, even when an operator erroneously puts approximately uniformly faced paper sheets on a setting portion, facing majority""s back faces upward, the processor sorts the majority front-faced or back-faced paper sheets to the main stacker having a larger capacity and the minority back-faced or front-faced paper sheets to the sub-stacker having a smaller capacity, thereby to rationally uniform the face-and-back orientation.